Heading to FL soon

I am heading to FL soon for some training and to visit some friends on the side and am looking FORWARD to the weather!

Merry Christmas!

My best wishes for a joyous Christmas day to my family and friends and maybe the blessings of Christ be upon you for 2011

Snow is on the way!

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

The Chairman of the Board...voices like that are few and far between.

An Elvis Christmas oldie

For any kids watching this, that device is called a "record player", aka "phonograph" aka "turntable". It's how we used to listen to music...and I still do every once in a while.

Another "new" Elvis song

From the newly released VIVA ELVIS cd, "Can't Help Falling in Love" is presented here as a duet. It's a nice version of the song I think.

Blue Christmas - Elvis

From the 1968 Comeback Special

Diagnosis on the Guzzi Lemans

I fired off a missive to my friend in Australia, Guzzi mechanic Pete Roper, asking him for some advice on the rear drive leakage issue on my 2002 Lemans.

Pete sent back some sage advice. Now all I need to do is follow it :0)

It appears that the bearing part #'s 30 and 31 in the pic below have likely failed. Part 31 is the inner race of the bearing. Part # 10 is the inner bevel box seal that has likely failed allowing the oil to escape.

So there is a fair amount of work needed to be done to repair this but winter is here and riding opportunities are slim anyway. Pretty much it be be a complete dis-assembly of the rear drive assembly. It will be good to get into the rear drive as I have not seen it apart before.

*****CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE*****

Oh Christmas tree how I love thee

Well the arduous task of finding, cutting down transporting and finally setting up and decorating my Christmas tree for 2010 has been completed.

Merry Christmas to all!

Dadgummit...the Goose done sprung a leak

After a fun little ride a couple weekends ago on my 2002 Guzzi Lemans, I spied a small puddle underneath the rear drive assembly.

Turns out it was gear oil. The right side of the rim and tire were fairly soaked in gear oil. I guess a seal in the drive assembly is the culprit.

So now I await the shop stand I ordered and one of my Christmas time projects will be pulling the shaft and rear drive assembly off the bike and seeing what needs fixin'!

Random ramblings

***SPECIAL NOTE!!***
The Comments on this post mark the long-overdue return of the "enraged motorist"

I have taken up reading a little bit more lately. Right now I am reading "Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory".
I really enjoy reading books on my little Droid device.

I recently got a new job at work. The product I have been working on for the last 3 years or so is slowly being phased out and there is just not enough work to go around on it anymore. So I started looking recently and applied for a position on another product which has a burgeoning pipeline and is very young in its life. I got the position and have just recently started getting exposed to this product. I think it is going to be very interesting to learn about the product.

As part of the new position I get to travel back to the Sunshine state, in the south of Florida, the first week of January for intensive training. I am looking forward to escaping the cold of the midwestern USA for a little bit. Hopefully I will have a chance to visit my Guzzi Stelvio while I am there as well.

ROKU Yule Log

My new lil ROKU video box debuted a new seasonal channel today called the Christmas Channel. It has some videos and non-stop Christmas music as well as my favorite addition, a video of a crackling, popping, hissing fireplace. Really neat!

Unbroken

I am not really taken to reading books very often, at least not for pleasure. I do read often, but more likely magazines, manuals, bits of stories here and there on the computer or books for learning, mostly job related.

Recently however I heard of a book that captured my attention. Of all places I heard about it on a sports talk radio show from a fellow known as Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo, a fiery and amusing character with a sports talk show on Sirius/XM satellite radio.

Occasionally he departs from the normal sports talk show fare and delves into books he is reading. This one really piqued my interest.

The book is called "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption". It focuses on the life of an Italian-American named Louis Zamperini and his life before, during and after World War II, in which he was a part of bomber crews in the Pacific theater fighting the Japanese.

I can't say enough about what a fantastic book this is. Exciting, interesting, chilling, joyous, heart rending and tear inducing.

Please get this book and read it. It's a story you will never forget.

The World of ROKU

Recently I made the decision, after looking at my fairly monstrous monthly cable tv bill, to cut the cord from cable tv and find an alternative for occasional tv watching.

Having heard some friends discuss a device called ROKU, I investigated and purchased the device (around $60 for the model I bought). It is a small box, about the size of a large sandwich, which connects to your home internet connect (wirelessly or wired) and streams HD content to your tv.

The ROKU gives you a very nice graphical interface for selecting from myriad "channels" of content on the internet. TV shows, movies, just all sorts of content, very much of which is FREE!

I did decide to subscribe to one such channel called HULU PLUS which has just a massive amount of content including popular current tv shows, movies and much more.

I am having a lot of fun playing with the ROKU and discovering all of the unique programming it offers. Best of all, my cable tv/internet bill of ~$119/month is now ~$45/month. Yeah, I like that :-)

Elvis - The new Suspicious Minds video

On November 9th there was a "new" release of Elvis music. 12 of Elvis' greatest hit songs have been "remixed" with more modern instrumentation, giving a feel for how they might sound had the King been performing them today.

Here's the new video of my favorite Elvis song, Suspicious Minds. Take a look and listen and let me know what you think. I love it.

NOTE: There's a 10 second commercial at the beginning you have to listen to first.

Stax o' Wax

I hooked up my newly acquired ION USB turntable to the pc this a.m., broke out all my old vinyl albums and started recording them to mp3 files so I can play them on my pc or IPOD or record them to cd.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To my family and friends (including my blog readers from around the world), here in the good ol' U.S.A. we celebrate Thanksgiving day on Thursday (11/25 this year).

This is a time to reflect on all of the people and things in your life for which you are thankful and grateful.

So a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Travel safely to your destination and God bless you!

The Messenger

This is an excellent video of Mark, Don and Mel. Mark was playing the Messenger guitar at this time. Fantastic stuff!




The original Messenger guitar was developed 40 years ago in California by a small company named Musicraft and is now best known as the guitar of choice by Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad) in the early 1970′s. Messenger guitars were built in San Francisco and then Astoria, OR from 1967-1968. Features an aluminum alloy tuning fork neck extending through the thin-line hollowbody. This model is a stereo guitar. Messenger also made a guitar with a built-in fuzztone called a Tone-Messer, a bass guitar, and a line of large amplifiers.

You got 6 and a half minutes?

CRANK IT UP!

First snow of the season

LEAF me alone

I have a massive old tree in the front yard. It drops leaves like they are going out of style. Yet it still seems like there are a million leaves on it.

So this a.m. was the first round of raking. Here are a few pics.

Out for a romp in the Hills

This afternoon I met up with some of my riding friends and headed over the Iowa's Loess Hills for a nice little ride. The weather could not have been better...low 70's, sunny and a light breeze.

Motorcycles were out in abundance and we had 7 bikes in our group. Terry and his wife Chris were on his Honda Shadow, Scott was on his HD Ultra Glide, Ryan was on his new (to him) Kawasaki GPZ 1100, Karen was on her BMW (GS650?), Jerry was on his Triumph Tiger, Robert was on his Guzzi California EV with me along on the Guzzi Lemans of course.

The roads were as usual a lot of fun and a good time was had by all. Below are a few pics. CLICK TO ENLARGE THEM.

Chef Aidan's Turkey Day recipe

Wanna know how to make a turkey just right? Take some advice from my lil nephew Aidan. CLICK the PICS to ENLARGE!

FALL

CLICK TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

Gettin' out

I am looking forward to the weekend. Sure feels like it has been a long week thus far. Friday night I am heading to downtown Omaha to a place called the Rock Bottom Brewery to hoist a mug or two with some of my pals. They have really great beer there and a neat atmosphere.

Anyone who wants to hoist some ale with us we should be there around 5:00.

Saturday the Cornhuskers take on Iowa State in football. Should be a fun game to watch. Iowa State beat Texas and Texas beat Nebraska so who knows what might happen!

Hopefully I will get out on my Lemans at some point to enjoy riding in the cooler fall weather. Maybe a Sunday ride in the Loess Hills of Iowa is in order. It's been a while.

The Good Ol' Days #4

This has GOT to be one of the greatest ads EVER! CLICK IT TO ENLARGE

My Keurig n Me

Lately at work I have been able to enjoy cup after cup of a variety of delicious coffee blends, thanks to my new Keurig K-Cup coffee maker.

There are LOADS of varieties of coffees available in little single serving "K-cups". Plop a K-cup in the machine, push a button and one minute later you have a piping hot cup of coffee.

My pal Bruce the Spruce Goose saw a massive display of K-cups at some place called Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day so he picked up some Kahlua coffee, some hot chocolate and even some English Breakfast Tea!

Here's a pic of my most excellent coffee making setup at work. Mere inches away from tasty coffee!

Save our QUISP!

As I sat down for a Sunday afternoon snack whilst watching football, I perused the very informative box containing said snack, QUISP.

I quickly tired of reading the %'s of vitamins, minerals and what have you but became intrigued by the side panel. This contained a question and answer session with our hero, QUISP the outer space guy.

The interviewer asked "Hey QUISP, where have you been?"

You see QUISP has been off the market for many a moon and has only recently returned to a grocery store near you. As a wee lad I consumed copious amounts of QUISP, only to see it vanish one day.

Anyway, back on task. QUISP replied, in his always effusive manner that he was on Planet Q gathering necessary supplies for QUISP for consumption in Earth.

Ahhhhh, no wonder he was gone! Now it all makes sense!

But here's the troubling part. The interviewer next asks "Is it true you're back to stay?". Why even as such a question?! The seeds of doubt are now planted in my mind. Will QUISP leave me once again?

QUISP's answer lent no solace as he stated "Only if earthlings want me to...."

Look at the picture below! Those are QUISP's words, verbatim!! Is he setting me up for another fall? Dammit QUISP please don't leave again. I so enjoy your flying saucer shaped cereal, which incidentally tastes just like Cap'n Crunch but with none of the roof of the mouth cutting sharp edges!

So I implore YOU, my Earthling friends, to go to your nearest grocery store (Hyvee has it!) and find QUISP. Buy QUISP. Eat QUISP.

Help make QUISP stay for good this time. Thank you.

The good ol' days #3

The Good Ol' Days #2